This invention relates to a testing apparatus for testing and evaluating the performance of laser seeking warheads for missiles.
The Automated Laser Seeker Performance Evaluation System (ALSPES) was built in the late 1970's for the purpose of testing laser semi-active seekers, such as those used on the Hellfire Missile and Copperhead Guided Projectile, to determine if there were any design abnormalities while performing specification compliance tests. Through the years, thousands of such seekers have been tested in ALSPES. During this time several design abnormalities have been identified and corrected.
The ALSPES facility is kept current as new technologies develop. The older, slower computers have been replaced with newer, faster models and all of the software has been rewritten to provide the operator with more capabilities. In addition, new lasers have been added to provide counter measure capability, particularly for the Hellfire Optimized Missile System (HOMS).
During the years, there have been many instances in which problems will develop during Fly-To-Buy (FTB) testing of Hellfire missiles that require bringing the missile seeker to the ALSPES for testing. Early in the FTB a missile experienced a lock-on problem in which it was determined that the sensitivity of the seeker was being degraded when the sun was in the field of view. The seeker was detached from the missile and brought to the ALSPES facility for testing primarily to determine the actual cause of the lock-on. The seeker was mounted in the ALSPES facility and tested for threshold sensitivity. This parameter measured the minimum amount of energy required for the seeker to acquire a target and to maintain correlation with the target for 3 minutes.
Without any background illumination or sun, the seeker passed the specification requirement. When several flood lights were added and placed in the field of view of the seeker, the sensitivity test was rerun several times and showed a significant degradation of the seeker sensitivity. It was also noted that after the flood lights were removed, the seeker was slow to recover. In order to determine whether all laser seekers behaved in this fashion, three lab models of the seeker were also tested in the same fashion. These seekers showed no significant degradation in sensitivity. As a matter of fact, one of the seekers improved. This seeker was returned to the contractor, who, after testing the seeker discovered that it had a bad sensor assembly. This in turn initiated tighter process controls at the contractor's facility.
More recently, a rash of failures have occurred during the FTB. These failures and the need to test more seekers for potential sun in the field of view problems requires a system and procedure of testing not available in the ALSPES. These problems resulted in the development of this invention.